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Sunday, May 07, 2017

Just Catching You Up On Day To Day Life - May 2017 Edition (LBE)

(The above photos were taken on April 18th 2017, and show a view of the ocean from our two living room windows on one of the many nice days we've had recently; the windows are on the same wall, so the view isn't all that different from each of them).

We've had a lot of nice weather lately. It hasn't all been beautiful weather... There have been some storms... But it's been sunny a lot, though not hot. But we haven't been able to get out and enjoy it much, because things here have been... Well, I suppose the best word for them is eventful.

So, what's been going on around here?

Well...

The landlords finally got a repair guy who not only showed up to do the job, but also actually did some work while he was here. This was a great improvement on their old guys, who either didn't show up, or didn't do much when they did show up. So, the new repair guy replaced the flooring in our place that had been damaged when we had that issue with the bathroom flooding over a year ago (yep, the landlords have been battling with repair guys for that long). He also replastered the bathroom wall, which was damaged during the flooding too. We were really pleased with it, and thinking he was almost done in the bathroom, so would be able to move on to dealing with other issues. We weren't alone in that thinking... He was thinking the same thing. I mean, all he hasn't done in there that he was meant to do is paint over where he had to do the plastering. Well, there's the matter of the radiator I think should have at least some of its pipes replaced, but nobody seems in any hurry to deal with that, since they seem to think there's no need to do anything while it works just fine, so I don't suppose I can count that.

But, anyway... Then the cracks in the ceiling of the hallway below our bathroom appeared again, and bits of ceiling fell down.

Yes, you did read that right... Some of the ceiling in the hallway downstairs fell down.

Of course, as is often the case, it decided the middle of the night was a good time to do it. We weren't all that surprised, since we'd noticed the cracks a couple of days before, and made the repair guys and landlords aware of them, and the repair guys were actually supposed to come take a look a couple of days later. But still...

Um... You may have noticed my use of the word "again" just now? Well, the thing is, the hallway ceiling fell down before, during the flooding incident that meant we needed a new bathroom floor.

At the time it was assumed it was the flooding incident that had caused it, which had been caused by a combination of a flexi-hose bursting due to having been installed wrongly (it had a twist in it, which isn't meant to be the case) and the overflow pipe for our boiler not leading all the way outside as it's meant to. Both issues that have since been dealt with. The hallway ceiling has also since been replaced, and the hallway redecorated. Perhaps it was due to the flooding that the ceiling fell down originally. Yet it was suspected there was some other issue, since signs of damp had been appearing in the hallway again. It was hoped replacing our boiler - which needed replacing anyhow - would solve the issue. apparently not. I mean, replacing our boiler was a good thing from our point of view (this one works better for a start). But judging by the fact the ceiling fell down again a few months after our boiler had been replaced, and water was clearly still dripping from somewhere, that obviously didn't solve whatever was causing the problem.

To cut a long story short, it was then assumed there was a leaky pipe that had been missed during the boiler replacement or something. But when the plumber came to find and fix the pipe in question, there was no sign of any leaky pipe. Water was still running down - the bucket for our mop was, and still is, being employed to catch it, and "hopefully" stop it causing any more damage - but it wasn't coming from any pipe as far as the plumber could see.

The new theory after that (yes, another theory) was that the water was somehow running down the inside of the wall from the roof, though nobody's sure how it's doing so even when there hasn't been rain for several days. So the landlords had guys out to put up scaffolding over the past few days, and will be sending a couple of guys up to check out the roof soon... Probably this coming week. Hopefully they manage to find and fix the problem. If so, it will be just a matter of waiting for things in the hallway to dry out well enough for it to be redecorated (again). Also, we'll be able to have our bucket back. Although, I think I'll give it a wash when I get it back, since the water dripping in to it isn't the cleanest, and I don't fancy mopping our floor using water from a bucket as filthy as ours is becoming. In the meantime, I'm trying not to think about the fact our almost new bucket - which we only got a few months ago - is getting rather filthy, and looking far from new.

Anyhow, once we're certain they've sorted out whatever problem is causing the dripping water, we'll arrange to get our shower sorted. We don't want to do it before the issue is fixed, because getting the shower sorted involves putting more tiles in the bathroom around the bath, and then putting up the shower rail and curtains. We don't want to do that and then find that fixing the problem with the water means they have to be pulled back off for the workmen to access anything behind the wall, or whatever. OK, so if they do have to do that then the landords would pay for it to be redone. But it's a lot less hastle all round if we just wait. The landlords are pretty sure they won't need to do anything in our bathroom, since it looks like the water isn't coming from our bathroom after all. But we're not taking any chances.

The other repair issue the landlords are trying to sort out is the windows. One of them has dropped in its frame, so - though we can open and close it with little to no difficulty - it's lower down than it should be in its frame, and looks as though it might fall out at any moment. We've been assured that it won't do so, but we do worry that it will, especially with how much of a problem that would be given that it would drop a few floors on to a busy street. Another window has shifted in its frame too, but in this case it's a different style of window, so has created a different problem, and won't close properly, though it opens just fine. They did send someone to look at the second window recently, and he cut a piece out of the frame to get it closed. But that didn't actually fix the problem, and we were just back to the same issue the next time we tried to close the window. Not to mention, all the windows either weren't properly sealed when they were put in, or whatever was used to seal them hasn't lasted well while being battered by the storms you so often get in coastal towns, because wind comes in through gaps that shouldn't be there, and brings rain with it sometimes too. Not much of either gets in, but it's still something that needs to be dealt with before it becomes a worse problem. Plus, it's kind of pointless improving our heating system if the heat's just going to be escaping through gaps like that. Anyway, hopefully their new guys will sort the problems out. The new repair guys have started looking in to what they need to do for the windows, so that's a good start. I'm guessing - and hoping - they plan on sorting the windows while they have the scaffolding up. It would make sense, rather than having to put it up again later, since there's no way they're reaching the outside of the windows without it in this building.

For our part, in between trying to fit day to day tasks in around the workmen/repair guys, Kelly and I have been sorting out the shelves and such. We now finally have the last of the shelves sorted, and the boxes of stuff unpacked. OK, so some of the stuff isn't properly organized on the shelves, so we'll need to properly organize those things. But it's all unpacked and on the shelves, and most of it is properly organized. It only took us a little over two years, that's all. Haha! Anyway, part of the reason for the delay in actually organizing the stuff is that I was out of the special tape for my braille label machine, and most of what still needs to be organized is DVDs and audiobooks, which we want to label as we organize them, so I can find the one I want without help. I do now have more tape, since I ordered some recently, so we have started getting them labelled. The thing is though, we're quite behind on doing this task, so there are a LOT to label. Anyway, I'm hoping to have it done by the end of this month, as long as I don't run out of tape before I finish. Mind you, unless they suddenly get a stock shortage of the stuff, it only takes a couple of days to get some new tape, so we may be able to finish by the end of the month even if I need to put the project on hold while waiting for more tape to arrive.

In other news...

While sorting the shelving, we moved things around a bit to take best advantage of available space, so had to buy a new coffee table, because ours didn't fit well where we needed it to go. The new one still has a bit of a gap either side of it, but it's the closest fit we could get, and is at least a better fit for the space than the old one was.

We also grabbed two more fans, since the way we have things arranged now meant we needed them. We don't have air conditioning - most places in this country don't - so we need fans when hot weather hits. Every room has two now, with a third in the living room, because it needs it due to having two South-facing windows at one end (the ones the photos above were taken from) and the kitchen at the other. Plus, the living room is where we have Joshua, Mollie, and Maizie, so two of the fans are positioned so they benifit from them the most (though they do also help to keep that end of the room cooler) with the third set up where we can benifit from it the best while sat either on the sofa or armchair, or if we're sat at the dinner table.

Speaking of preparing for warmer weather - and in the interests of making sure you're totally up to date on what's been going on around here - I needed new Summer pyjamas, because I had to retire most of my old ones last year. I do still have a couple of pairs of good ones, but they're long-sleeved ones, which I get too warm in when the weather starts to warm up. So I brought two new sets with short-sleeved tops. One has a plain black top and black bottoms with butterflies all over them. The other one is a grey set with a rabbit on the top and stars and moons on the bottoms.

Oh, and we thought we'd need to replace our tumble dryer recently. Luckily it turned out the fuse had just blown in the plug. Even more luckily, I know how to change fuses in plugs, so it was only a matter of a few minutes to solve that problem. Annoying, but cheap and easy to fix.

So there you go. Now you're all caught up on what's been going on around here. Not exactly exciting, but certainly eventful, and it's been keeping us busy, that's for sure.

4 comments:

Wow, it's good to get an update on your life and world but those repairs (and the detective work to get to the bottom of them) sound exhausting and frustrating. I know you'll be so relieved when all is said and done and hopefully the landlord continues getting people who actually show up! This last group sounds much improved.

The shelving sounds good and the fans, too. I don't have air either and usually don't need it but every few days I'm bring up the fans from the basement. I'll be dealing with a shower tear-out and re-do/retile in a few weeks. Boy, it's expensive. It's times like this I wish I had a landlord who would pay for it!

Jeanie:Exhausting and frustrating about covers it. I'm hoping they can figure it out and get the work done quickly.

I'm glad I have the landlords to pay for most of it. There are things we have to pay for, but thankfully most of the stuff being done doesn't come under the list of things we have to pay for. We'll have to pay to get the shower sorted though. But I'd much rather pay for that than pay all the bills I know the landlords must have from the other jobs.

The water problem doesn't sound solved yet. Let's hope they finally find out what the cause is or the hallway ceiling will just fall down again. Good grief!! And your windows--that could be awful to have them fall down on that busy street! I hope they get those sorted out, too. I'm glad that you guys don't have to pay for most of this stuff--whew!! But it would be hard to get anything done with workmen coming and going and making noise and climbing about. I hope they finish up pretty soon so that you can have a quieter summer. :)

Rita:I hope so too! Also, you're right... It's really hard to get things done with them around. I'm behind on several things because of them. I'm not really complaining, because I'm glad they're here doing the work, but I'll be even more glad when they're done and can go away and leave me alone.

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